In 1974, six years after I became pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church, a number of seminarians, pastors, and myself launched a conference to promote Calvinistic doctrines which we felt were being widely neglected by most Christians. We did not know what to call our conference, but since it began in Philadelphia, we decided to call it the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. It became quite popular, and in the years since it has been held in such widely scattered cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta, as well as its home city of Philadelphia.

The problem these religious leaders brought to Jesus in John 8 was not like the earlier challenges about paying taxes or what life was going to be like in the resurrection. Concerning the test of the woman caught in adultery, there were three important matters at stake: 1.) the life of the woman, which was precious, at least to Jesus; 2.) Jesus' teaching about the gracious nature of his kingdom; and 3.) the law of Moses, which had been given by God. The way the question was posed, it seemed to the rulers that Jesus would have to sacrifice at least one and possibly two of these three elements. Jesus was known for being gracious. He taught that God was love, and he seemed himself to love sinners. But if Jesus should show love to the woman who had been caught in adultery and recommend that her life be spared, he would be setting himself against the divinely-given law of Moses. How could a teacher do that and still pretend to be a prophet sent by God? No one could both oppose the law of God and also speak for God at the same time. Jesus would be identified as a false teacher.